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"Nafelzelite, Archangel of Disease"

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"Sapheniel, Seraphim of Wrath"

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“Nature is a haunted house - but Art - is a house that tries to be haunted.” 

― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems

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as i said in yesterday’s post, replacing whitewashed art of Jesus, Mother Mary, and other holy figures with non-whitewashed art is vital to confronting white supremacist beliefs in our theologies. We must unlearn our notions of a white God, of whiteness as God. So here are some of my favorite icons from Kelly Latimore, who seeks in iconography the “re-shaping, re-imagining, and re-wondering” traditional holy images. Image descriptions are included.

“The Trinity,” featuring three figures seated at a low table that has a rainbow tablecloth, a bunch of grapes, and a bundle of wheat on it. All three figures are feminine looking: the first has light red robes and medium brown skin; the middle has deep brown skin and black dreads and dark red robes; the third has green robes, lighter skin, and appears Asian with black hair. All three have golden wings and haloes. The central figure clasps the hands of the other two figures. 

Refugees: La Sagrada Familia - reimagining Mary, Joseph, and the newborn Jesus as contemporary refugees, these haloed figures are Latinx in appearance, wear jeans and have frightened or determined expressions as they walk under a full moon and starlit sky with hills behind them.

See two other icons Latimore has created of the Holy Family as refugees here and here.

La presentación de Cristo en el templo - A modern take on the prophets Anna and Simeon meeting the baby Jesus - a Latina-looking Mary wears jeans and a hoody with the starry blue robes of Our Lady of Guadalupe draped over them; she holds a swaddled sleeping Jesus as an older man and woman smile at him and Joseph, holding a rooster and wearing a t shirt and baseball cap, looks on behind her.

Christ - Swords into Plowshares - An adult Jesus with brown skin, a short black beard and longish hair, and light red robes with a blue apron over them looks earnestly at the viewer while holding a hammer in one hand and a sword over an anvil in the other. The end of the sword is red-hot and curved, as he is beating it into a plowershare. 

Marsha P. Johnson - an icon of a trans rights activist who was at the Stonewall Uprising of 1969; she has rich brown skin, curly brown hair, and smiles at the viewer. She wears a fur coat, a string of pearls and a crucifix, bangles and a ring, a crown of big white and pink flowers, and holds a yellow flower in her hand. Her other hand beckons upward to the upper right corner, where an image of Mary on a starry background wearing green and blue robes and with dark brown skin looks down at Marsha.

Latimore has icons of other contemporary “saints,” including Mahalia Jackson, Mother Jones (”pray for the dead, fight like hell for the living”), the saints of Selma, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Maya Angelou. 

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"Remember the Selk'nam"

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Luna, Sol, Mars, Saturnus, Merkurius, Venus and Jupiter by Jan Collaert II after Jan van der Straet, c. 1585-1628.

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"What a Nice Kite"

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another source of being

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extraordinary adventures of raspberry jam

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"Abduction at Twin Peaks"

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"Dragon's Tusks"

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Ask me anything

Brand new to Tumblr, so if you're curious as to who or what I am, ask me anything!

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Release Me

Among the cold, cimmerian caligo

I see my face

Torn and gashed with it's hints of gold and dern expression

I feel mad

My soul cracks

The foundation no longer stands upon this pile of bones

Decay

I gasp

Pulling apart my skin

I cannot escape this agony

I cannot release this air

Ethereal fire chars my ribcage, forbidding my repentance

I am alone, in a sea of flame

Unable to die

Heretical

I am my own blasphemer

My heart is its Apostate

I wish I could feel

I wish I could escape these grey eyes

I am

Behind my prison cell

Beneath the chipped paint

Across the cobblestone floors

I am prisoner within my own soul

And I cannot get out

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"Veil of Sight"

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"Delusions of Grandeur"

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